Battle of Quebec

Battle of Quebec,British troops scaling the heights of the Plains of Abraham and engaging the French at the Battle of Quebec, September 13, 1759, during the French and Indian War; engraving by Hervey Smyth, aide-de-camp of British Maj. Gen. James Wolfe.Hulton Archive/Getty Images(Sept. 13, 1759), in the French and Indian War, decisive defeat of the French under the marquis de Montcalm by a British force led by Maj. Gen. James Wolfe.

After the fall of Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, in 1758, Quebec became the main military target of the British offensive. The following June, young Wolfe led a British force of 250 ships carrying 8,500 regulars to take up strategic positions in the St. Lawrence River. Protected by high jagged cliffs, Quebec resisted a two-month siege by land and water. Finding a narrow, hidden path, Wolfe secretly disembarked more than 4,000 men the evening of September 12, forcing a confrontation on the Plains of Abraham. The next day the French defenders were routed in this battle, in which both commanders were lost. This battle led to the fall of Montreal the next year and the final British victory.